19 Sep 2011 - Jardim América Area (Mom)

[Buttons (our new cat) is awesome.] Cats are no good. They just bite and attack you. You should have got a Scruffy 2.0. Cats will live for like 3 years and then keel over. How big is this cat going to get? In Idaho they had perfect cat breeding tactics. They are all cute and fluffy as kittens but they never make it past that because they die ;)

[Lauren was called as Relief Society instructor. She is nervous, but she will do fine.] That's good for Lauren. I hope I never get called as anything :) She can just read the book, that is what our teacher does here. All the girls will help her too. Imagine an Elders Quorum lesson in college....silence/slumber. [Besides how many teens/20's do you know that are excellent teachers at that age.] Ummmm I know one 21 year old excellent teacher...me!

I got to bless the sacrament yesterday at church. It was cool. It's been 3 years since the last time I did it. Well that's a lie, I did it once in the MTC. It was cool to do it in Portuguese. I didn't have a microphone so that was good, nobody could hear me mess up or anything. I was watching everybody though afterwards since the priests stay up there the whole time here. I like to watch people. I noticed some people were paying attention and others weren't. Someone said something interesting that their old mission president told them. During the sacrament they should think about Jesus and forget about the mission and the investigators for just a little bit and focus more on Jesus. I thought that was cool.

19 Sep 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

[We finally broke the record for 100-degree days at 70.] Yes! Record! Good thing I was here during the record. Missed one more thing while one the mission ;) I'll tell my kids anyway.

 

This week was better. We were able to baptize the father of the family that we have been working with for 5 weeks. It was hard, probably the hardest week in his life. Satan threw everything he had this last week to try and destroy this man's life. The Lord won after all though. We talked to him, pleaded with him, fasted for him, prayed for him constantly. It was a good experience for me. It showed me the power of prayer and fasting and the power that the Holy Ghost has on people. It was probably one of the most spiritual baptisms that I have had so far. I'm glad he was able to overcome a mole hill to see the mountain of blessings that waited on the other side!

 

[We had the missionaries over for dinner and as part of their spiritual thought they asked what blessings we've seen due to having a missionary out. To an extent it is kind of hard to know because you don't know how life would be different without a missionary, but to me one of the blessings is simply receiving email from you each week and reading about your love for the people and your love of doing the Lord's work.] I'll tell you the blessings that you have been receiving while I'm gone: new car, mountain resorts, vacations out the whazoo. Just to name a few ;)

12 Sep 2011 - Jardim América Area

Here are some pictures of the state stadium, some mountains we took pictures of. We hiked up the lone mountain here in Fortaleza and took some pictures of the skyline. Guess what the mountain is made out of? Trash! Oh and the bat that attacked us.

12 Sep 2011 - Jardim América Area (Mom)

[Told him about caring for and trying to teach the new cat.] That cat better be dead by the time I get back home. I don't want it's nasty hair everywhere. They smell bad too. I've seen enough cats here in Brazil. They are the size of leopards here. They are huge, bigger than Scruffy and more annoying. He is going to break your decorations and then you are going to have to kill him. That's what they do here, throw buckets of water on the cats and yell at them. They also throw rocks so you could try that out maybe it'll work. :) If you use rocks then he'll know who has got the control. You could try mailing a few things over my way too ;) Apparently peanut butter is out and maple syrup is the new cool here in Brazil. It's like precious gold. Everyone asks me if I have it. Way to go Americans, you spoiled the people and now they are begging me for stuff ;)

12 Sep 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

[Our stake will be fasting for rain next Fast Sunday.] Fasting for rain? No then you guys won't break the record! :) Is it really that bad? You stay inside all day, I bet you don't even realize that it is hot outside.

I bought a camera already. It was the cheapest that I could find, that wasn't a piece of junk. I got a discount for paying in cash and I persuaded the lady to do it for less. Well kind of...I told her I had to go and get my money and she said No No!! I'll take off 20 more! I guess she thought I was running away to buy somewhere else. Oh well discounts! It's usually the opposite, when they see an American the price magically doubles. It's a kodak, it's pretty cool. I got it for R$320. Too bad I bought it before the dollar went up 10 cents darn. Everyone tells me that the US is plummeting into despair, but as long as the dollar keeps going up I'm good. I already have all my pictures backed up on my USB and DVDs, maybe one day I'll send them.

[I told him about an experience I had in Nicaragua teaching a group of argumentative college kids where I ended up just stopping, bearing my testimony, and leaving.] Those college kids never want to listen to anything. They think they are soo smart :) Once again the area is hard and it is hard to keep my chin up when everything is not working out at all. We try and try and nothing happens and all the members just turn their heads and don't pay attention. It's been awhile since I've had baptisms, which is rare here. Baptisms makes the work so much easier, it's so much more fun to work and do stuff when you actually meet your goal. I'm just chugging along, but who knows what will happen. Sometimes Satan tells me that I can't do it, that I don't know enough yet to help the people etc. I have to say that sometimez I believe him. It's hard but I'm praying and waiting.

5 Sep 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

[Fort Worth currently in second place on 100 degree day record for year, but finally dropped below 100.] Living it up in the heat. Texas is getting cooler and Fortaleza starts the dry season, the best of all seasons. Too bad I switched my shoes, the ones with the holes didn't work too well in the rainy season. Good bye to the rain until December.

 

I have some bad news....remember the bat attack a month ago? It happened again. This time it was an angry mother bat trying to save her child. The other one was random bats falling from the ceiling. My companion was acting all manly because he didn't know the dangers of bats like I do ;) He thought it was a bird. When he saw that it was a bat he screamed and dove on the ground and army crawled everywhere. This bat flew and swooped at us, definitely going for the eyes. Finally we got it out but then we realized that it had a baby inside. So we got the baby on the broomstick and cracked the door open and stuck out the broomstick... Whew. This is clearly the most dangerous mission of them all. I can only imagine the jaguar attacks that the elders have to deal with in the Amazons ;)

 

This week we had an investigator ask us why we didn't tell miracles and crazy cool things and why we all say the same thing during fast and testimony meeting. We tried to explain to them why but they didn't really understand. They assumed that stories like that would be more powerful to convert people. We talked about Jesus and how people saw Him do miracles and still didn't believe. The crazy old lady that insists on battling every word I say was there babbling on for hours. Sometimes you just want to throw garden chairs at people like that, but I can't.... So I was praying and asking that the Lord would help me bear a powerful, simple testimony to show them the power that it has. So He helped me and I did just that. It was wonderful. They all just went silent as a bore my simple testimony that I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet called of God. I know these things because My Almighty Father in Heaven revealed these things to me through His Holy Spirit. No miracles or grandiose things testified that to me. I was told! The Holy Spirit gave me that certainty. Oh how I know it is true and nothing is greater than that! This is the true Church that Jesus Christ put upon this Earth. That is my testimony, I embrace it, I share it, I try every day to increase it, I need it.

28 Aug 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

Man I was hoping that football season started already. Is this the year that BYU is going to play Texas?  I hear from a kid here from Oklahoma that OU is ranked #1. I'm assuming they will still play the traditional game against Uof U.

 

Hey ask grandma if they know any Bromley's from Concord. I think they lived there but now they live in Danville. I assume you know where that is since you grew up in Concord. There is a missionary from there here with me. His parents names are David and Debbie. DO IT.

 

This was a good week. We have a few families that were are trying to help out. This area has a lot of families in fact. It's a lot nicer to work and baptize families. It's every missionary's dream! I don't have much to say this week. We had Zone Conference and President burned all of us because some missionaries are rebelling under the new command. He told us that a General Authority is coming to visit the missoin too so that is cool. They haven't 'closed the deal' so he doesn't know who is coming yet or when. Well that's my boring news of the week.